


It's All in the Numbers

by cuddly_stydia



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-07
Updated: 2014-09-17
Packaged: 2018-02-16 10:15:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 3,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2265933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cuddly_stydia/pseuds/cuddly_stydia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU where everyone is born with their own unique number on their right arm, and their soulmate's unique number on their left arm.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you guys like this! xoxo -Eliza

Stiles Stilinski has been in love with Lydia Martin since third grade. 

His true happiness depends on her number. He wishes every day that he'll get to see his number: 82108310924, on her left arm. 

He's never gotten a clear enough look to see her number, or the number of her soulmate, because he isn't even cool enough to say hello to her without getting shut down. 

He's memorized the number on his left arm in hopes of seeing it on his soulmate. It could be anyone, but he would definitely prefer it to be Lydia. 

82267531564\. That's his soulmate's number. He plans to find out who it is if it's the last damn thing he does. 

 

Scott McCall had never had a real crush on someone... until he met Allison Argent.

The second she walked through the door to his class on the first day of school, he almost fainted.

He didn't think he believed in love at first sight, but he was extremely wrong.

Allison was his sun, moon, and stars. She was everything.

When they found out that they had each other's numbers on their arms, they didn't know what to do.

So they made out for 3 and 1/2 hours and then just smiled a lot. 

Stiles was genuinely happy for Scott, but he could feel jealousy seeping into his smile as Scott hugged him excitedly. 

 

Lydia Martin was knew Jackson Whittemore wasn't her soulmate as soon as they started dating, but she kept dating him anyways. 

After all, what was the point in finding your true soulmate before you've had a bit fun? 

When she was around him, she wore a mask. 

She convinced herself she didn't mind. 

When she was rendered speechless by Stiles Stilinski at prom, she convinced herself it meant nothing. 

Little did she know, her number was on his arm, and his number was on hers. 

 

The second Allison Argent met Scott McCall, she knew they were soulmates. 

She didn't need proof. She could feel it. 

And damn, did it feel good. 

She didn't think it would happen, but when she looked up at Scott as she took her last breath, she felt both numbers fade off her arms. 

Then Scott felt hers fade off him. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles finds out Lydia is his soulmate. He doesn't know what to do.

Stiles saw Lydia's arm at the dance. 

It had his number on it. 

They were soul mates. 

He didn't say anything to her, but he was planning on it. 

He just didn't know what to do. 

He enlisted Scott to help, but the only help Scott provided was babbling about how nice Allison smelled or how pretty her hair was. 

Scott was a great friend, but in situations like this, he was useless. 

 

Stiles had a list of many, many options. 

-just tell her

-^bad idea

-tell Allison to tell her for me 

-^possibly worse idea

-text her

-^awful idea

After some intense thought sessions, he concluded that he would text her that he had something important to tell her, then meet her somewhere, then tell her.

Probably still a bad idea, but it was the best he had. 

After pep-talking himself to death, he texted her,

_-i gotta tell u something important. can we meet somewhere? -Stiles_

He mentally smacked himself for his stupidity and waited for her reply. 

After 20 minutes of shaking like a Chihuahua and almost peeing himself, he sprung out of his chair when he heard his phone beep.

_-1. I have your number in my phone, idiot. You don't have to say who it's from. 2. Sure. Meet me at the old playground in 20 minutes?_

His heart leapt into his throat. Yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes. He ran to the Jeep and drove as fast as he legally could to the old playground by their old school. 

 

When he got to the playground, he looked around for Lydia's car. He spotted it parked a few yards away from his. He saw Lydia sitting on one of the swings and (speed)walked to her. 

She looked at him from where she sat and started swinging. "So. What's this important thing you need to tell me?" 

Stiles sat down in the swing next to her and sighed, "I don't know how to tell you this, so I'll show you." 

He pulled up his sleeves so both numbers on his arms were showing. Lydia slowly copied him by rolling up the sleeves of her sweater. 

Stiles glanced up at her as she looked at both of their numbers. He heard her squeak as she realized what this meant. 

She slowly looked up at him, eyes wide with shock. 

She quietly whispered, "We're soul mates." 

He whispered back, "I know." 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lydia and Stiles think about things. Lots of things.

Lydia and Stiles sat silently on the swings for just a few minutes, but it felt like years were going by. 

Stiles broke the unbearable silence by asking, "So... thoughts?" 

Lydia chuckled lightly and replied, "I don't know. I mean, out of everyone I could've ended up with, I'm pretty good with this. But you have to understand, I like playing around with guys. It's inevitable that we'll end up together but I'm warning you, we might not be a couple for a while. Are you okay with that?" 

Stiles was most certainly not okay with that. But he said he was. He would never say no to Lydia Martin. 

They carried on as normal. They were friends. 

 

With Jackson leaving and all the other drama, Lydia was happy when Aiden came along. He was a bad guy, but he looked damn good. 

He treated her well and he was a great kisser. What more could she want? 

But as the time passed and things with the Alpha pack got rough, she questioned her ever-present love for bad boys. Maybe she needed someone like Stiles... but maybe not yet.

 

Stiles couldn't help the little twitch his eye did whenever Lydia was with Aiden. He hated him and he was jealous of him. Damn his good looks and bad boy attitude. Damn it all to hell. 

Stiles could never just go out with another girl when he knew Lydia freakin Martin was his soulmate. He couldn't even think about other girls. 

Until Malia came along. 

 

After Allison's and Aiden's deaths, Lydia couldn't feel anything anymore. Before the Nogitsune, she and Stiles had been great friends as usual, but during his possession, she was alone. 

When she found out about what happened with Stiles and Malia at Eichen House, she forced herself not to care. After all, she had Aiden. He could have Malia. 

But there was something about the were-coyote that made her skin crawl. She just didn't like her. At all. 

And now that Stiles had Malia, he barely talked to Lydia anymore. He was all caught up in helping Malia. All the time. 

Lydia didn't even try to pretend to be friends with her. Malia treated her like a weak, useless, idiot. So she set the record straight. 

Malia was not smart. No amount of math notes could save that girl. Lydia wouldn't ever admit it, but she screwed up some of the notes so it would confuse Malia. 

When Stiles tried to pass off Malia's bitterness and stupidity as "progress," Lydia would roll her eyes and scoff. 

It seemed to piss Stiles off. 

They were growing so far apart that she was starting to believe they weren't really soul mates. 

She didn't know if she was okay with that or not. 

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Malia and Stiles make out during a pack meeting. Lydia is disgusted, (and maybe jealous...?)

Lydia Martin did not get jealous. 

Especially of a dirty, annoying, bitchy, were-coyote. 

But as she watched Malia and Stiles make out on Scott's couch in the middle of a pack meeting, she wondered how Stiles' mouth would taste against her own. 

Kira then tapped her on the shoulder, and she realized she had been completely zoned out, and now all eyes were on her (except Stiles and Malia's.) 

Derek looked at Stiles and Malia, then back at Lydia. He smiled at her sympathetically. 

"Lydia, did you hear what I asked you?" Derek asked lightly. 

Lydia cleared her throat, sat up, and flattened her skirt. "No, sorry. I must've been spacing out for a second." 

"Well I asked if you could go with Stiles and Malia to the lake house today to see if there might be anything else there." Derek growled lowly at Malia and Stiles, since they were giggling like children. 

They then noticed that there were, in fact, other people in the room. Lydia scoffed loudly, not trying in the slightest to hide her disgust. 

Stiles and Malia looked up, confused and blushing feverishly. 

Stiles, having no idea what was happening, just muttered, "Oh yeah, sounds great. Mhm, yes, totally." and went back to attacking Malia's lips like a starving animal. 

Scott, being the best person in the entire world, stood up and declared, "You know what? I'll go to the lake house now with Lydia. There's no need for them to go." 

Lydia sighed with relief and looked up at Scott. His eyes flashed red for half a second before turning back to normal. 

She noticed when his eyes flashed, he was looking at Stiles and Malia. She guessed they would be talking about this later. 

Lydia stood up, brushed off her skirt, and walked over to where Scott was waiting for her at the door. 

"Goodbye, lovely pack members! Oh, and goodbye Stiles and Malia." Lydia strode out of the room, Scott behind her. 

The last thing she heard before the door closed was Malia growling. 

She smirked to herself as she saw Stiles looking at her through the window, confused as usual. 

Look who's suddenly paying attention to her. 


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Malia notices that the number on Stiles' left arm is not hers.

Malia never really cared about the numbers on her arm. She knew she'd find her soulmate eventually. 

But when she and Stiles started dating, she noticed that the number on her arm wasn't his, and the number on his arm wasn't hers. 

At first, she was pretty sad about it, but she didn't say anything and life continued on. 

But she became curious. Really curious. She HAD to know whose number it was on Stiles' arm. 

She considered asking Stiles if he knew who it was, but she wanted to avoid bringing that up with him. 

She decided to do some looking around. 

 

At school, she inspected the arms of whoever wasn't wearing long sleeves. 

She got some weird looks, but she kept searching. 

After 2 days of nothing. She decided to do the one thing she hated most: be around Lydia.

She knew about Stiles' lifelong crush on Lydia, and she just needed to be sure they weren't meant to be together.

She and Stiles may not be soul mates, but Lydia didn't deserve him.

 

At the next pack meeting, she attempted to look casual while trying not to stare intensely at Lydia's left arm.

It was warm out, thank god, so Lydia wasn't wearing a sweater.

It seemed Lydia hadn't noticed her staring, but it was the end of the meeting and she still hadn't been able to see the full number on Lydia's arm.

As she was about to walk out with Stiles, who had been eerily quiet that day, Lydia tapped her shoulder.

"Malia, can I talk to you for a second?" Lydia asked politely, ignoring the questionable glare from Stiles.

Malia sighed softly, knowing Lydia had, in fact, noticed her staring.

"Sure. I'll be right back, Stiles." She smiled at him, hoping to erase the utter confusion off his face.

She and Lydia walked outside the loft as the other members of the pack stayed inside talking quietly.

Lydia turned to face Malia and crossed her arms, "Why were you staring at me for the entirety of the meeting?"

Malia considered lying, but she knew Lydia was too smart for that.

She looked back at the banshee guiltily, "I'm sorry. It's just I noticed a few days ago that Stiles and I don't have each other's numbers on our arms, and I knew he's liked you for a long time. I just thought that maybe you guys were... you know..."

"Soulmates. I know." Lydia finished the sentence for her. "And if you really need to know, yes, we are. But just because we're soul mates doesn't mean you can't date him. He seems happy with you and I respect that. Please don't tell him I told you. I don't want him to think I'm trying to sabotage your relationship." 

That was the most genuine and kind Lydia had ever been to her. Maybe they could work on the whole 'hatred' thing. 

Lydia smiled kindly at her and Malia instantly smiled back. 

"You know," Lydia said, "maybe we could work on hating each other less. I don't like you, but maybe we can be less awful to each other." 

Malia laughed, "sure," she replied, "I don't like you either, but we could work on it." 

As much as they both hated each other now, they were both willing to try and change. 

When they walked back into the room together, both smiling, it went silent. 

They both laughed. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so yeah this was a Malia/Lydia friendship chapter. As much as I like writing them as enemies, I think if they don't hate each other as much it will be better for the story.   
> hope you like it!   
> xoxoxo   
> -Eliza


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> everything happens so much

The second Stiles saw Lydia and Malia walk out of the room together, he started freaking out. 

He ran over to where Scott was sitting with Kira on Derek's couch, and plopped down next to his best friend. 

Stiles sighed loudly, "Should we go monitor Lydia and Malia? Because if they're alone together I feel like exceptionally bad things are going to happen. Malia may have claws, but I don't doubt that Lydia could do some damage if she was angry enough." 

Scott glared at Stiles and shook off his comment. Stiles sat up and looked at Scott, utterly confused. 

"Dude, what's wrong? Did I do something?" Scott scoffed and rolled his eyes, as though this should be plainly obvious to Stiles. Stiles had noticed that since he and Lydia went to the lake house together that he had been acting a bit cold. 

Scott, clearly annoyed, angrily snapped at Stiles, "What did you do? Really, Stiles? If you haven't noticed, Lydia's been a wreck since you abandoned her for Malia. You're her tether, her soulmate, and she clearly trusted you a lot. But you meet Malia and all the sudden Lydia's out of your mind completely. During the drive to the lake house she told me everything. We cried about Allison and ranted about you and Malia together. You left the girl you've loved for 9 years all alone in the dust while she is grieving her best friend. That's what you did, Stiles." 

Stiles' mouth hung open in shock. He hadn't even thought about that. In the back of his mind, he knew Malia was just a distraction from Lydia, but he never knew he would get this distracted. As he was about to pour out his apologies to Scott, Lydia and Malia walked back in the room. Laughing. Together. What? 

Lydia met Stiles' eyes and looked away quickly. Stiles stumbled out of his seat and ran over to both girls as fast as possible. "Malia, would you mind if Lydia and I ride home together... alone? I just have a lot of stuff to apologize for." Malia looked back at him and smiled, then turned to Lydia and nodded. 

He could've sworn that when Malia went to hug Lydia that he almost had a stroke. Was he hallucinating? Did someone drug him? 

Lydia smiled brightly back at the coyote, then turned to Stiles. 

"Alright," she said as she flipped her perfect hair over her perfect shoulder, "let's go." 

Stiles realized how much Malia really was distracting him. He had missed Lydia's sassy tone and shining smile, her strawberry blonde hair and her beautiful green eyes. 

The walk to Stiles' jeep was silent. As Lydia got in the passenger side and Stiles got in the driver's seat, he could feel the tension in the air. 

"So... Scott told me about what you guys talked about going to the lake house." Stiles fiddled with his fingers and tried to avoid Lydia's piercing glare. 

"Nice of you to acknowledge me for once. Do you understand how hard these past months have been for me? I lost my best friend, then I lost you. We haven't talked for weeks, Stiles. You never noticed me slowly breaking down as you helped Malia get stronger. I was alone. Scott helped me a lot. He got me to open up. I needed that." Lydia met Stiles' eyes with her own and Stiles wanted to cry. He made Lydia break down. He broke her. 

He needed to help her. She was his priority. She should never have been pushed aside. He felt awful. 

Lydia noticed Stiles' eyes watering and slowly wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into a hug. 

She felt his arms shaking as he wrapped them around her. She felt his body become wracked with sobs as he cried into her neck. She felt his hair between her fingers as she raked her them through his hair. 

He whispered in between sobs, "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry."

They stayed like that until his eyes were dry and his sobs were silent.  

 


	7. Chapter 7

Lydia felt awful. 

Even though Stiles insisted everything was fine and it was his fault, she knew it wasn't. 

He had been there for her his entire life and she hadn't even noticed him, but the one time he was with someone else, she decided she needed him. 

She laid in bed, staring up at the ceiling, wanting to throw up and cry. 

Stiles was treating her like a queen; doing everything he possibly could to make sure she was happy. He was so kind, she didn't deserve him. 

She and Malia talked more now, and even though their personalities clashed, it was good to have her to talk to. 

Stiles and Malia weren't together 24/7 anymore, so their relationship had become less fast-paced and more normal. It was nice. 

Lydia expressed regularly how bad she felt for basically stopping their relationship, but Malia insisted that it was good for both of them. 

It had been a good week, but tonight she wanted to curl up in a ball and sleep for 3 days. She wanted to cry and yell and kick the walls because she didn't know how else to get rid of the awful sinking feeling in her stomach. She didn't expect that when she fell for Stiles Stilinski that it would happen like this. 

She heard her phone buzz on her nightstand and she grudgingly rolled over to get it. It was Stiles. Perfect. 

"Hello?" she said tiredly. 

"Lyds? Hey, it's me. What's up?" Stiles sounded his usual, happy self, but there was something kind of... off.

"Hey. I'm just sitting in my room. What's up with you?" She could hear whispering in the background and she knew something was wrong. She assumed she would have to do something so she put Stiles on speaker and started getting dressed. 

"So Malia, Scott, Kira, Liam, and I are at the lake house. Can you meet us here? Soon?" She could hear him biting his cuticles like he always did when he was anxious. Great. 

"Yeah, give me 15 minutes. See you there." She hung up the phone and darted out of the house while fixing her skirt. 

As Lydia pulled up to the lake house, her mind was whirring with the possibilities of what they needed her for. It was pointless trying to figure it out, because it was always something new with them.

She stepped inside and called out, "Stiles? Guys? Where are you?"

She heard Stiles' muffled shout from downstairs, "We're here! Basement!"

 

When she got down the stairs, she froze in place. Her grandmother's urn (which she had learned earlier was full of mountain ash,) was broken on the floor, and the mountain ash spelled out one word: Ariel.  

Her vision got blurry and she started seeing spots. Oh god. She felt her legs buckle from underneath her and saw Stiles running towards her. 

She dropped to her knees and screamed. It was louder than anything she had ever heard before. She felt the room shake and the last thing she heard before she blacked out was Stiles screaming, "LYDIA!" 

 

 

 


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is kind of a filler chapter so i can plan the next one out without leaving you with nothing! sorry! ill update REALLY soon i promise! the next chapter is gonna be great i promise you guys <3 <3 <3

Lydia gasped for air as she threw herself upright off the ground. 

She wasn't in the lake house anymore. She was in a white room. 

Awful, fluorescent lights attacked her eyes from the ceiling, and she quickly stood up and spun around. 

She had been here before, in Stiles' mind. But this time, instead of Stiles and the Nogitsune sitting on the Nemeton, she saw Allison. 

As soon as Lydia saw her, she ran as fast as she could towards her best friend. 

Allison didn't see her. It was like she was looking straight through her. Lydia realized she wasn't getting any closer to the huntress, and she stopped to catch her breath. 

This had all happened before, in Stiles' mind. Only then, she had been with Scott. She was all alone this time.

As she stared at Allison, wondering what the hell she was going to do, Allison's whole body became rigid and she looked straight at Lydia. 

With empty eyes and a pale face, she mouthed, "Ariel." 

That's when Lydia woke up. 

 


End file.
